Swedish locality of Staffanstorp - run by Moderate/Sweden Democrat coalition - decides that students in schools who do not eat pork won't be provided with a meat alternative as vegetarian is offered. This seen a sending message that Muslims not welcome, which local govt denies.

Moderate-SD authority in Staffanstorp now arguing that this is about "economics," but in their platform they clearly state that "cultural characteristics" (such as halal meat) should not be accommodated by local government. So, it's about laying down cultural markers.

There are similar cases in Europe where pork became a symbol of national identity. As I wrote in the @WashingtonPost last year, it's never really about the food (if pork were removed from school menus, and no-one was told, would parents even notice?). It's manufactured outrage.

The pork/halal debate (including some right-wingers now boycotting Toblerone after they found out they were marked as "Halal") that we now see on a regular basis in Europe is also framed within a larger culture war, which is ultimately destructive. As I also wrote...

1) American Patriot newspaper (1852) echos current smears of Muslims/Latinos: "Disgorging themselves upon us, at the rate of Hundreds of Thousands Every Year! They aim at nothing short of conquest and supremacy over us." Who were they writing about? Catholic immigrants. History.

2) Striking similarity between how American Patriot newspaper wanted to treat Irish/Italians in 1852 & current immigration rhetoric:
*deport poor/criminal immigrants
*ban them from voting for 21yrs
*protect US workers from Catholic labor
*no tax money to poor Catholic immigrants

3) In 1852 picture new Catholic immigrants to US carrying carry signs:

"We Are Bound to Carry Out the Pious Intentions of His Holiness the Pope"

"Americans Shant Rule Us!"

Allegiance to strange religion & refusal to adhere to US law and values. What's now said about Muslims.

I love the fact that US conservatives are only now "discovering" that Sweden is actually a capitalist country. They must have missed IKEA, Volvo, Saab, H&M, Spotify, Ericsson, Electrolux...

Conservatives now argue that capitalism made Sweden a good place to live. It's actually regulation, unionization & use of tax money for egalitarian policies that made Sweden a good place to live. Those things would never happen if the "free market" was left to its own devices.

Let's bust the myth that there's responsible "Swedish Capitalism." There's just Capitalism, and how it's regulated. When IKEA didn't like the taxes in Sweden, did it stay out of egalitarian solidarity? Nope. It left and established itself as a Dutch charity for tax purposes.

I live in Sweden, and I can tell people in the US that what I get for my taxes is worth paying a bit more for. Subsidized daycare. Subsidized pre & after-school care. Universal healthcare. Paid parental leave. Free university (for now). Oh, and no insane spending on the military.

In Sweden, tax value also has long-term effects: more security; knowledge that illness won't bankrupt; knowledge that having/caring for a baby won't bankrupt or derail careers (usually the mother's); more gender balance in domestic labor. In short, treating citizens like humans.

Take subsidized pre-school in Sweden. From age of 1 until school, kids can go Mon-Fri, 35-40 hrs/week. Payment based on income, but MAX payment for higher-income earners around US $100 a month. For many it’s free. Then, once at school, similar after-school care for similar money.

Related threads

This is an absolutely terrifying, TRUE story my old #Democrat friends don't want you to hear.

Friends, we need to RT this thread to educate all patriots about this important information about dangerous threats from #Mexico.

About ten years ago, late at night, a heavily armed tactical team of eight tall muscular men approached the front door of a house in Phoenix, Arizona, apparently, to serve a warrant. If you would have seen this team, your brain may have registered the familiar image of a SWAT

team we see in the Media: Bulletproof vests, Kevlar helmets, black boots, and Phoenix Police "raid" shirts on top of their body armor. With pistols and AR-15 rifles, the team broke down the door of the house without announcing they were the police, or that they had a warrant.

Thread:
There was a meeting about 5 days ago between #Coalition & #SDF during which the latter tried to extort support vs #Turkey in return for them continuing their #Hajin ops. According to the source, the Americans became too weary with SDF's "Turkey for IS" quid-pro-quo

"They just want the #Hajin pocket over & down with". The mood was glum and the coalition said they would be supporting SDF Sho'aytat Arabs directly. There would be no pause in operations until #IslamicState is defeated in Eastern #Syria

In fact, for the past 12 days, Coalition has directly provided the Sho'aytat Arabs with ammo, guns and night vision equipment.
The Coalition is to continue to use its "scorched earth" policy in Hajin despite mounting civilian casualties.

Just for a bit of balance when I was trying to get out of special ‘schooling’ in the 1980s none of the local public schools in Campbelltown NSW would take me. Only a local Marist school was accessible & made the effort #schools#education

The principal of one public school looked at me, snorted and said ‘well what are we going to do with this little problem hey?’

The second public school said I’d have to skip maths & science classes and do them in a corridor or the library

1/ So #Sweden has voted and the Swedish Social Democrats are the largest party by vote share again, as they have been in every election since 1917. Good right? Nope. The real story is that the far right Sweden Democrats are now kingmakers, a 'former' neo-nazi party w/ power.

2/ So what's happened? Well, in terms of broad brushstrokes and looking at the result in a wider European context, what's happening is that the far right, sometimes openly neo-nazi as with Germany's AfD are milking a historically latent European Christio-xenophobia.

3/ They are taking advantage of a flat economy in which wages haven't risen to match productivity and profit margins, in which housing, transport, food, medicines, and education are more expensive on average, even in Nordic social-capitalist models like Norway, Denmark, & Sweden.

My dispatch from #Sweden, which is experiencing an unprecedented surge in shootings, bombings and sexual crime. The crisis is mainly restricted to areas predominantly populated by immigrants, so ordinary Swedes read the news with disbelief: thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…

In #Sweden, a country of 10m people, more than 320 shootings and dozens of bombings were reported in 2017, along with more than 110 murders and 7,226 rapes — a 10% increase on 2016. More than 36% of young Swedish women say they feel unsafe at night. thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…

I visited some of the worst areas, including #Malmö's #Rosengård, where children as young as 14 roam the streets with Kalashnikovs & bulletproof vests. The average age of gang members is 22, the vast majority of them hailing from migrant families. thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/…